Training!

This week I got meu filho amado (my beloved son). His name is Elder Proença and he's from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He's 20 years old and acts like he's 12 haha. I must admit, it's hard to work with him at times because he doesn't want to learn the missionary ways, but it's all good in the hood because I love the kid. This week we had our zone conference and we talked about our missionary purpose, and our purpose is BATISMOOOOOO. Sadly we didn't have any baptisms this week, but I hope this next week will be different! Being a dad is a little different than I thought it would be, but I feel like I'm going to be great! I have faith in myself and most certainly The Lord Almighty, so I'll let you all know how things go down this next week! Tchau tchau!

Christmas Miracles!

Merry Christmas Fam! I'm comin’ at y'all to say that this area is a field that's white and ready to harvest! My new comp, Elder Evora, is from Cape Verde, Africa and really strict. But it's all good. I'll work with what I got lol. We ended up having 3 baptisms and 1 wedding this week! The lovely couple is Ana Patricia Magalhaes da Costa and her manly husband is Josilane Almeida da Costa. We are actually really close to baptizing some of their kids too! We also ended up baptizing a rad guy named Janderson Lopes Fernandes. Batismooooooo! Besides the baptisms, we ended up cleaning the entire outside of the church by ourselves and then some members came to help with the inside. The church had no water this week so we ended up using the fire hose for everything haha. Sobral is pretty dang sick and has a lot of tourist places to visit. We also have to take a TRAIN around to other areas. It was an all-around great week and I'm glad to get to know my comp. But looks like I'm going to train one this next week...

3 Baptisms!

Wedding day

Sunset at bus terminal

  

 Slumber party at the church

 Should you really hang your laundry here?

Christmas in Sobral, Brazil

Christmas Transfer?

Nada! Nada! Nada!

This week was pretty good even though our numbers would say otherwise. Elder Lima was pretty sick with his allergies a few of the days so we had to return home for a bit and I would study as he napped. I feel like my Portuguese is getting pretty good, but I had a bit of a problem zoning out and not listening at times. But that's passed and I'm getting closer and closer to being fluente.

 

I also had the great opportunity to baptize Aysla Isabela Alves da Silva this Sunday. She is the 9 year old daughter of one of the part member families in the ward.  After I baptized Aysla, I said, "nada  nada nada" (swim swim swim), and she immediately ducked under the water and started paddling and kicking her feet - big splashes. Luckily Max hurry and shut the doors LOL. There was a giant birthday party thing that all of the kids in our area were invited to and the 3 other kids that were supposed to get baptized with Aysla chose the party over their salvation. It's all good 'cause I know I'll baptize them this next Sunday. At church, after the sacrament meeting, a guy named Lucas came up to us and was like, "hey I was gonna be baptized but fell away". Then he went on to ask me to baptize him and I was like "you bet". So we should have at least 4 more baptisms this week. All in all, a great week! Can't wait for the next!

Giving Thanks!

This week was pretty good, I'm not gonna lie. I forgot to write President Lago on Pday. Whoops. I had my first district meeting in this new area (at the church) and we played ping pong afterwards. I dominated, of course! As we were going to teach a lesson to "Santa Maria" (that's what we call her) we noticed a hidden community behind the soccer field. We went over and started contacting and found some fantastic people! We ended up getting a couple of baptismal dates! In fact, by the end of the week, I got a lot of baptismal dates and we've got 5 people who can be baptized this next Sunday!

Thursday was Thanksgiving in the States. We were able to call home and I called when our family was playing in their yearly "Thanksgiving Bowl" football game. It was great to see everyone! My comp and I had a sweet little dinner of our own, complete with a whole chicken, potatoes, beans & rice and Coca-Cola. I'm so thankful for being a missionary and I'm so blessed! I love my family, the people of Brazil, and the Lord!

I've learned the true meaning of daily repentance and will continue to follow the prophet's wonderful counsel with these things. I don't want to waste any of my or the Lord's time. I think we might baptize Maria! (Sister of Max) She's a strong, catholic gal, but with all of the proof and answers to her questions, there was nothing else she can do but know the truth.

We had a leader's conference in our zone and so when we were in the office, I got my Christmas package from home! We get to open little presents every day and on Dec 1st we started off strong by getting Swedish Fish. My comp was soooo happy!

I bought a ring (so girls will leave me alone - thinking that I already got a woman) and I bought a bible this week and it is comin in clutchhhh. I bought it in a weird shopping center thing. It felt like Charles Dickens Christmas Festival back home and I loved every minute of walkin around there! Not including the section of stores where people could buy inappropriate items lol. I've been using my bible so much too cause I bought more scripture tabs/markers. I'm not bible bashing, but I'm just provin people wrong and sealin my testimony lol. Thanks for the Christmas decorations! I hope you guys had a great turkey day! Love y'all!

New Area - Picarreira

I am in a new area! I'm still in Teresina but in a different part called Picarreira. My companion is Elder Lima and he is from Sao Paulo, Brazil. We live in a big house with another set of elders. I don't have a picture of all of our district yet, but it turns out that all of our district lives in the same house haha. Let's just say I will need to continue praying for patience. Our District is me - "The drop dead sexy american", Elder Lima - " the stone cold fox from Sao Paulo", Elder Dias, and Elder Arevalo.

This week started out with a butt load of success but in the end it all fell through. We could've kept a lot of people, but they didn't want anything more to do with us. We came to the conclusion that it would be better to drop all those people than waste the Lord's time.

We had zone conference on Wednesday and my comp and I taught a lesson/activity. We blindfolded people with our ties and they walked through an obstacle course while be guided by "good" and "bad" people/influences. They needed to figure out who to listen to and get to the tree of life and partake of the sweet fruit (we had candy). It went pretty good. I had McDonald's for the first time here in Brazil and it was amazing! I had a Big Mac and a bacon cheeseburger. Sooooo good.

My comp taught me how to solve a Rubik's cube this week and so now I am a master at it. The Lord has been truly blessing me with this whole language thing and I just need to continue praying for his guidance every night. All in all, I'm just happy to be out here and learn more about the people of Brazil while I'm teaching the gospel. I hope you all have a great thanksgiving:)

Study time

This is our front door. We live above a health clinic.

I sleep on the top bunk. I got a sweet set up - the fan blows on me all night.

Misc pics of our pad

The bakery across the street where we pretty much eat breakfast everyday.

 

Zone Conference

Our Mission Song